A prominent Taliban cleric known for his fiery speeches against IS militants was killed Thursday in a suicide bombing at a religious seminary in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. did.
A spokesman for the ruling Taliban confirmed the assassination of Sheikh Rahimura Haqqani, saying he was a "brutal enemy attack".
Bilal Karimi on Twitter described the slain cleric as "a great scholarly figure in the country." Taliban officials said an investigation into the attack was ongoing.
Islamic State, the Afghan branch of the self-proclaimed Islamic State group that fights the Taliban. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the deadly attack on Haqqani, a speech dissident in Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), which dominates and bombed the country's minority Shia Muslims.
ISIS-K emerged in Afghanistan in early 2015. Attacks across the country have intensified since the Taliban took power almost a year ago.
Haqqani had previously survived two unclaimed assassination attempts, including one in neighboring Pakistan.
Like its members, he graduated from Darul Uloum Hakkania, a major religious seminary near the city of Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan.
